


More Than Mercy

by legendaryroar



Series: Sapphic September 2018 [23]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Sapphic September, Sapphic September 2018, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 23:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16073465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendaryroar/pseuds/legendaryroar
Summary: After they finish interrogating Acxa following their escape from Ezor and Zethrid, Allura remains to question her alone. There were times in their various battles that Acxa had ignored opportunities to take Allura down, and Allura needs to know why.





	More Than Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> For Sapphic September Day 23: ~~“Is that mistletoe?”~~ or **“Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”**

“Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”

Acxa turned to look at her, the first time since they’d started interrogating her. Chaining her to a wall in the cargo hold of the Blue Lion after she helped them was probably an overreaction, but until they knew more, they couldn’t risk that it wasn’t some kind of elaborate scheme.

The others had left now, but Allura stayed behind. She needed to know.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Acxa said slowly, looking around as if she was only just noticing they were alone.

Allura crossed her arms. “During our fight with Lotor, you had a clear line of fire on my lion after Lotor almost incapacitated me. I saw it. You didn’t take the shot. It’s not the first time either. Other times we’ve been engaged in battle, you have held back when you could have pushed forward and done serious damage.”

Acxa went stiff. She almost curled in on herself a little as she did so. Tense and tight, like she was moments from lashing out. She swept her gaze over Allura again, then looked down at her hands. There were cuffs around her wrists, just bent pieces of metal, crude but effective. Allura had made them after they escaped Ezor and Zethrid.

There was silence as Acxa’s gaze flitted about again. Allura felt her patience grow thin, but endured. It had been haunting her for a long time. It wasn’t like any Galra, even a half-Galra, to miss opportunities like Acxa had, and she didn’t want it to be some long-term plot she had turned a blind eye to.

Eventually, they would release her. She had helped, and her story was credible. But until they did, Allura had to take advantage of the moment and learn all she could.

She would not make the same mistake she had with Lotor.

Finally, Acxa met her gaze again. “We have a lot of information about you, Princess. Lotor studied Altean culture and important figures extensively.”

“And...” Allura prompted, frowning at her.

Acxa averted her gaze and curled her hands into fists. “We share soul marks. I was unable to take your life as a result.”

The air seemed punched out of Allura’s chest, and it took her a moment to find it again. “You lie.”

Acxa held up her bound wrists. “Take a look then. My mark is on my wrist, the same as yours is. Unless Lotor’s information was incorrect.”

Allura really shouldn’t have looked. She should have walk away. It was likely nothing more than a dirty trick. Acxa was Lotor’s second, after all. But it would eat away at her, she knew. For so long before the fall of Altea and her long sleep, she had searched and failed to find the one who shared her mark.

An old and familiar ache rose up in her chest. After all this time, she had thought it hopeless, assuming her soulmate was long dead.

Even though her mind was screaming at her not to fall for another trick like she had fallen for Lotor’s schemes, she found herself reaching out.

She pried away the metal bands she had so recently curled around Acxa’s wrists. Acxa stayed still as Allura peeled back the wrist of her suit. It didn’t occur to her to guess which wrist. It would be on the left, as it was on hers.

And so it was.

“Did Lotor know?” she found herself asking, as if through a haze, as she stared down at the Altean marking that was identical to the one on her own wrist.

“He would have used it against you if he had,” Acxa said.

When she reached for Allura’s wrist, Allura did nothing to stop her. That old ache in her chest was changing, turning into something new. Something hopeful. She shouldn’t have let it, she knew. It could have been yet another ploy. A back up ploy thought up by Lotor.

But when Acxa’s fingertips touched her mark, she felt it in her chest. A warmth waking and spreading through her.

Acxa sighed as Allura touched her mark too, and then leaned her head back against the wall.

“This should make it easier, but it doesn’t,” she said. “It only makes it all worse, doesn’t it?”

“You still fought against me anyway,” Allura said, still fixated on the mark. It was a different colour against Acxa’s skin. It almost glowed.

“I did,” Acxa murmured. “I don’t really have an excuse except what I have already told you all about my part in everything that has happened.”

Allura let her wrist go and stepped back. Acxa was now freed from the chains binding her to the wall, but she made no move towards her. She watched her in silence.

When Allura said nothing further, she sighed and pulled her sleeve back down. “It doesn’t have to mean anything,” she said softly. “And you don’t have to tell anyone. I will not speak of it. These things don’t always work out, and the wrongs I did cannot be forgotten. It is enough for me that I have helped you now and am trying to make up for the things I have done. I expect nothing from you. I answered only because you asked, and because you deserve to know.”

It was too much to think about now. Allura turned away. She needed to be alone. She needed to think about this without Acxa standing right there, bearing her mark on her wrist and suddenly appearing to be an ally rather than the enemy Allura had grown to know her as.

With a grimace, Allura picked up her helmet from where she had placed it by her feet, and put it on, activating the comms.

“Keith, I have let Acxa go. Send Kosmo to take her to another lion.”

Keith accepted her decision without question, and Acxa didn’t seem to react at all. Allura pulled the helmet back off and stared at her. She didn’t know what to say.

Acxa shrugged. “Worry not, Princess. I never had any hope for a romantic relationship between us. I will settle for no longer being enemies.”

Allura looked away again. She didn’t even know what she wanted, she only knew that after everything with Lotor, she should have been questioning and resisting this more than she was.

“But, if you wish to try for more, I will not turn you away,” Acxa added, as Kosmo appeared beside her.

Allura didn’t reply, and Acxa just shrugged and placed a hand on Kosmo. After she was teleported away, Allura slumped. She had a lot to think about.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to otpshipper98 for the last minute spot beta! 
> 
> You can find me at [legendaryroar](http://legendaryroar.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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